Friday, July 20, 2012

How Dumbo Ends: Crows Left Behind

Having already examined the opening of Dumbo, let’s now take a look at the ending. Nothing deep here. Just stating what’s there for everyone to see.

Let’s go way to the end, when the action’s over. Dumbo’s triumphed in the circus. Immediately we get a montage of newspaper and magazine covers:

This next one is particularly important. Not only because it references the war, but because it identifies Dumbo with a bomber whose nose was designed to look like him:

Military aircraft were as high-tech as technology got in 1941—still are in 2012 for that matter. That identification—between animals and technology—is at the heart of the mythological dimension of the film.

Then, of course, the inevitable Hollywood contract:

Timothy Mouse gets to play the big shot and ... what could possibly be more successful than making it in Hollywood?

The montage goes by quickly and gives way to this shot, the circus train, Casey Jones, Jr., riding merrily along:

Notice the extreme anthropomorphic make-over on the train, though it is, of course, absolutely standard in cartoons. A nominally inanimate being, a steam locomotive, has been given an all-but-human face. Notice also the curvature of the earth, as though the train is literally at the top of the world, thus echoing the aerial shots from the beginning.

The sound track features “When I See An Elephant Fly,” but it’s not being sung by the crows. It’s being sung by the elephant matrons who earlier had ostracized Dumbo and his mother.

As the train goes by we finally see that last car with Mrs. Jumbo sitting in the rear:

The car is Dumbo’s private car, Dumbo’s and his mom’s. Notice the sleek aerodynamic styling. This is very modern and contrasts with the other cars on the train.

Now we see Dumbo with his crow “posse” flying behind him:

Notice his aviator cap, which identifies him with the Dumbombers. This elephant flies with the latest fashion.

And the crows are now in formation behind him, thus reversing their earlier situation when they had to lead him. He now leads them.

Dumbo breaks away from them and rejoins his mother

while the crows take up formation at the top of a telephone pole. We’ve see these before, of course, when Dumbo first flew and ended up landing on telephone wires, and the crows landed on him. We’ve got more high technology, 1941-style: the telephone system.

And the crows, those jive talking happy go lucky good-hearted African American crows, they aren’t in the circus train. Never were, never will be.

The film ends with the train rolling off into the sunset while the crows are up on the telephone pole, watching it go, and talking about getting Dumbo’s autograph. They helped Dumbo find himself, helped him become a hero, and they’re still outsiders.

I’m reminded of the end of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Huck’s abusive and alcoholic father is dead, Jim’s been freed, and Huck decides to “light out for the territory” to avoid civilization: “...I can’t stand it. I been there before.” When Dumbo puts on a few more pounds he won’t be able to fly and he’ll just be another circus elephant, him and his mom. Those crows won’t be able to help him them. Besides, they’ve got their own problems.

The happy ending is only in the movie. The world is bigger than that.

ADDENDUM: Where's the train going in the last frame grab? The film started out in South Florida, but that doesn't look like Florida to me, nor Louisiana, nor anywhere in the Midwest.